Mittens and candy canes

I haven't been posting much recently as I can't :( I am taking part in some secret exchanges and so all my new stuff can't be shown just in case the person they are intended for sees them.

I have however been busy ferreting away with other stuff too including going and getting myself a new job woohoo. I am really looking forward to getting in the workforce again after being a stay at home mum for so long.

I have made some candy canes as a practice for Christmas. Here is how to make them. 

You will need:

One packet of ready made regal icing

Peppermint flavouring, red and green food colouring paste

soften your icing by kneading it until soft and pliable.

Add peppermint flavouring to taste I like mine quite strong and so used a lot, if the icing starts to become sticky add some icing sugar to firm up again.

Half the icing leaving half white, half the other half and colour one section green and the other red

When you have finished you should end up with something looking like this

 make a sausage of white and a thinner one of a colour

Twist together and roll to seal them together.

Put them onto a wire rack to dry out over night. store in a sealed container until required, they can last for months as long as they remain airtight.

you will end up with something like the ones below 

I have also made some mittens to go with the girls matching sets for Christmas. I couldn't find a pattern that would work for all three sets and so I came up with on of my own using a few other patterns I found. here is the result and underneath is the pattern.

Cast on 34 stitches using 4.5mm needles

row 1 knit 2 purl 2 to end

row 2 purl 2 knit 2 to end

repeat these two rows 9 times so you have 18 rows altogether

row 19 k2, p2

row 20 k2, p2, k2, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, p1, k2, p2, k1, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, p2,k2,p2, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k1, p2, k2, p1 increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k2, p2, k2. (you should now have 38 stitches)

row 21 knit to end repeat 5 more times

row 27 k18, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k18

row 28 knit to end

row 29 k20, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k20

row 30 knit to end

row 31 k21, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k21

row 32 knit to end

row 33 k22, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back,increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k22

row 34 knit to end

row 35 k23, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back k23

row 36 knit to end

row 37 k24, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k24

row 38 knit to end

row 39 (you should now have 52 stitches) k18, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, slip the next 14 stitches on to a stitch holder, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k18.

(leave the 14 stitches on holder as this is thumb)

At this point things change for each pair you are making as you only need to go as high as the top of the little finger for the person you are making for. measure from the top of the ribbing to the top of the little finger before starting to decrease. just knit each row to end to the required length.

to start decrease, 

row 1 knit 2 together, k8 repeat to end

 row 2 knit to end

row 3  knit 2 together, k7 repeat to end

row 4 knit to end

row 5  knit 2 together, k6 repeat to end

row 6 knit to end

row7  knit 2 together, k5 repeat to end

row 8 knit to end

row 9 knit 2 together, k4 repeat to end

row 10 knit to end

row 11 knit 2 together, k3 repeat to end
row 12 knit to end
row 13 knit 2 together to end
row 14 knit to end
row 15 cast off

For the thumb
Pick up the 14 stitches
row 1 increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k12, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back,
row 2 - 10 knit to end
row 11 knit 2 together to end
cast off

Make up by sewing the seam along one side and on the thumb.

One last thing before I go is my TUSAL report which I am very late for :(

Hats all done

I have been busy knitting away this week making the matching hats to the girls scarfs.

I will give you a quick pattern to make your own underneath

OK so you need to know how many stitches to cast on. Using 3mm needles. You need to measure around the head in cm. You then multiply that number by 2.3. you then round to the nearest number. For example Kerry's head is 55cm.

So I multiply that by 2.3 to get 126.5 I will round that up to 127 and cast on that many.

First row knit to end

Second row purl to end

repeat these two rows a further 4 times. This causes the bottom to curl up (which is what you want)

Switch to 3.75mm needles and knit each row until the work is 14cm long.

Then on a RS (you are looking at the side of the work that goes on the outside) knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end

next row knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end

knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end

knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end

knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end

knit 1, knit 2 together. repeat this for the whole row ending on a knit 1.

next row knit to end.

From this point you knit 1 knit 2 together on all rows until you have no stitches left.

Leave a long piece of yarn to stitch up your  work.

This is the pattern for both Kerry and Jessica's hat.

Emily's hat is a little different, but only in that the first 8 rows rather than knitting the whole row then purling a whole row I knit 3 purl 3 on all 8 rows making sure that I kept the pattern right so it would stretch correctly.

Here is how to make the pompoms on the top.

1. Wrap yarn around your hand several times.

2. The more times you wrap the bigger your pompom will be.

3. Remove your hand and pinch the yarn around the middle.

4. Tie another piece of yarn around the middle and pull it tight knot until secure.

5. cut all the loops of yarn all the way around.

6. You should end up with something like this.

7. Trim the ends to make it a uniform ball.

8. Using the ends of the yarn you tied around you could either trim them  to form part of the pompom or like I am use them to attach to the top of the hat.

9. Pull both ends through the top of your hat  and tie a couple of knots 

10. trim off excess yarn

11. This is how it looks.

I have also gotten 'The Wedding' back from the framers. It looks great if I do say so myself. Here, have a look.

Hehehe it's still in the wrapping. I can not wait until she sees it. I hope she loves it as much as I do.

Oh yes I also baked some muffins today they were delish. Here's the recipe

250g self raising flour

140g caster sugar

100g dessicated coconut

150ml millk

120ml vegetable oil

1 large egg

mix all ingredients together in a bowl split between 12 muffin cups and bake on 180 for 20 mins. how easy is that?

I was going to take a photo of them but they were all eaten before I could.

Ok all of to work out how to knit some mittens now. Speak soon x

Knitting a scarf (with instructional videos)

For Christmas this year we are doing a handmade Christmas  This means that all gifts are handmade. The children are really looking forward to seeing what Santa will be bringing them and eagerly thinking of what they can make as gifts, so watch this space for all our makings.

Emily has been after a hand knitted scarf for ages now and so I have decided to give her one for Christmas, and of course once one wants something the rest follow and so now all three girls are wanting scarfs. So I thought about it and I have decided to make them all a hat glove and scarf set in the colours of their choice.

Emily wants purple, so please watch the video below to see how to do it.

Unfortunately the camera is on the wrong side so to watch you will have to tilt your head :( If anyone knows how I turn it please tell me

This one shows casting on and basic knit stitch

This shows casting off

This shows casting on, knit stitch and purl stitch

This shows how to cast off in purl stitch

And here is Emily's finished scarf.

And this is Jessica's

Handmade paper

I have been trying my hand at making paper. I can say I have learned a lot during the process and have decided to research and new projects I try before going ahead and doing them, instead of trying to remember how I did it in school when I was 10.

Anyway here is what I did and my recommendations for you to not make the same mistakes I made lol

You will need 

Frames, paper, water, Material, sponge, staples, bowl, blender (optional), cornflour/ cornstarch

First of all you need some frames, I got my hubby to make me some 

You then need some fabric to spread over them, I used an old pair of tights, but I would recommend something more stable like cheese cloth or muslin.

Staple it into place

You should end up with something like this 

OK next you need to take some old paper, this can be junk mail, or old bank letters etc, in fact this is a great way to use up all those documents you have shredded up.

 You then need to soak it in water

 At this point you can either blend it using 1 cup water to small handful of wet paper. If you are blending then I would recommend making sure the bottom of the bowl is fully secure (oops I didn't and made a right mess)

 Or you can do it by hand, This is great but time consuming, but if you are getting children to help then they will have much merriment doing it this way.

You want something that looks like this, from here on called pulp.

Add 2 inches of water in your bowl per handful of pulp and add in a few tablespoons of cornflour to your water too.

 dip your frame in, material side up 

carefully run a finger around the wooden edges, to remove the excess 

 place another frame material side down over the top

 press and squeeze as much water out as you can, use a sponge to really soak up as much as possible

 or use a towel but it will get very wet very quickly so have plenty to hand if using them. A sponge you can just squeeze as often as you need.

 Remove the top frame, and turn out the paper onto some where flat

 layer up as many as you want if you only have a small drying space and place something heavy on top to both keep it flat and squeeze it thinner 

Leave to dry overnight, best to be somewhere warm

then you can write away.

After I had done all this i found loads of instructional videos on YouTube where they made it look sooo much easier than I did it lol

Anyway off to learn a new craft.

Getting Prepared

Jessica has had an accident this weekend :( She was playing in her Grandmas garden when she fell down some steps and did this.

My poor baby, apparently she barely cried, my kids are hard as nails lol.

I also had the shock of my life the other night too, now my pets can not stand each other well Ceefer the cat hates the dog, Benji just wants to play. However in a first ever they spent 4 whole hours like this

I was happy they were so comfortable together.

I have been looking in to what gifts we will be making for the adults in the family. I have now decided what we will be making. I have also been looking up options to help etc. I have found a recipe for home made glue stuff, which I have made up a batch and will see how it works.

One of the gifts (2 people are getting the same gift) require 5 glass bottles and so I have been searching all over for glass bottles as I will need 10 altogether. I need a size 250ml one and so I have been looking on Amazon and Ebay and all blooming over I also went around all my local shops to see if anyone sold something like what I wanted. So after killing 3 hours in this fruitless task all the ones I found were too expensive for my tastes I struck upon an idea. Asda sell bottles of olive oil, in the size that I need. So I have decided to buy 10 from there. Not only does this work out cheaper than buying empty bottles but I also end up with loads of olive oil :D I have decided that this extra oil I will now have will be the perfect gift for some foodie friends, as I am going to infuse them with flavours and put them into bottles as gifts too. (I know I will have to get more bottles but I think I will use the Asda bottles again and use that oil in my cooking) OK OK long winded way of doing it decanting oil from here to there and back again but I know what I mean lol.

So, now in my head I know what is being made for whom and can now get a calendar organised for getting everything done. Woohoo, I'm much more prepared this year than any other year!!

Ok the meeting season has started once again and so many of my evenings have been taken up with council business, (tonight being a highlight for me as it was with a rather handsome police officer, yummy, no officer I don't mind at all that the meeting ran over, now what were you saying before I lost myself in your eyes??lol) but I have managed to get some stitching done too. Here is my day by day updates.

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

This is as far as I have gotten, as you can see it is almost finished now another week or so and it will be done yay me!

It is also TUSAL time again so here it is

Anyway time for bed for me speak soon x

Double update

I haven't done much on 'The Wedding' over the last two days as  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  and Jade have been doing 'their bit'. It almost killed me letting them take over, I was not a happy bunny lol. Here they are giving it a go.

Thing is  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  really got into it and continued for a couple of hours, while I sat twiddling my thumbs.

Here is the result at the end of Friday

And this is it at the end of Saturday

As you can see, there is more of the white at the top done (that's all I would trust  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  to do without supervision lol.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  managed around 150 stitches in 2 and 1/2 hours)

We took the girls to the cinema on Saturday to see Top Cat, they do a family special film where it costs just £1 per person (of course if you are like me you will sign up on line and get yourself a further 10% discount)

The younger girls loved it, Jade not so much and I fell asleep half way through.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  was my pillow lol.

When we got home from the cinema we were greeted by these

Jessica liked the yellow one Emily liked the orange one. We made flags with them here are the girls doing just that.

 

 In other news Kerry has finished her cross stitch. She is very proud of it and I must say for her first one she has done very well. 

Can't wait for her to give it to Jade as she is so excited about it. 

I have also joined a group that takes photos of their waste jars, so you will see the label TUSAL and a picture like this.

For more information about what this is about then go here to read up more about it.

Anyway off now to cook a Sunday dinner! woohoo getting excited about it how sad am I?

Speak soon x